Free Republic

Imagine you are an 18-year-old who struggled to finish high school. Shakespeare, calculus, European history—none of these played to your strengths. But you found your niche in art class, performing community service, or working with your hands. A four-year university is out of reach, yet, with a few more classes at a community college, you could make the jump to a university or be better prepared to enter the workforce. You arrive at junior college, ready to sign up for classes, and what’s on the list? “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 101.” At Wake Tech in Raleigh, N.C., the school’s “DEI...

Last month I wrote about a black professor’s experience teaching a seminar for a group of high school kids about race and the law. Professor Vincent Lloyd had taught a seminar like this before for the Telluride Association and it had been a good experience. But the second time around he found himself “trapped in anti-racist hell” thanks to “Keisha,” the person assigned to be his teaching assistant. Keisha quickly radicalized his students and turned them against one another (two students were voted out by the others) and against him. “The students had all of the dogma of anti-racism, but...

Remedial classes have been standard practice at community colleges since about the 1980s. The original intent of these not-for-credit courses was to protect underperforming students from failing actual college classes. Remedial courses gave such students the extra support they needed to eventually take those classes—and succeed in obtaining a degree. However, in recent years there has been some debate over the effectiveness of remedial courses. This culminated when Governor Gavin Newsom of California signed a bill severely limiting the ability of community colleges to place students into such classes. Colleges cannot now mandate remedial courses for academically underprepared students except...

Scrolling through my social media recently, I noticed a post shared by a friend that read: “@ all high school seniors filling out college applications right now: COMMUNITY COLLEGE IS OK [repeated 7x].” The sharer of the post wrote that she was about to get her associate’s degree and transfer to a four-year school with zero debt. Having gone through a similar college pathway, I hit the “like” button and commented expressing my agreement. This post pushed back against the stigma about community college that many people are enculturated to believe: that going to community college is a failing option...

It is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has financially impacted the education system for almost two years. The North Carolina community college system (NCCCS), which had an enrollment drop of 11 percent in 2020, is no exception. With a reduction in enrollment comes a reduction in funding, putting a strain on the 58 community colleges in the state. In March 2021, EdNC reported, “The community college system is [ ] asking for $61 million in non-recurring funds to stabilize their budgets after the steep enrollment declines this year and funding for community college faculty and staff pay raises.” With...

House Democrats have released their draft plan to make free community college a reality across much of the country, at a price tag of over $100 billion. The obsession with a zero sticker price for community college is odd, given that community colleges are already one of the most affordable sectors of America’s higher-education system. Average tuition is less than $4,000 per year, and after existing financial aid is applied, the typical student pays no tuition at all. The more pressing concern at community colleges is not the price of admission, but what that tuition payment is buying students. Most...

While community colleges are known as a low-cost path to higher education, some might be shocked to learn that their enrollments took a steeper hit than the four-year sector in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Usually, economic downturns help the two-year sector’s enrollments when learners are attracted by the more affordable tuition and no-frills, no-nonsense approach to the calling of higher education. In that rather sobering observation, however, lies a lesson that could help community colleges move forward: stay true to the mission. Once the million-dollar fancy marketing campaign for the brand new dorm or the cool robotics...

Biden's American Family Plan would dole out free college, free child care, free meals, and more. But does the math add up? Nope.President Biden released the provisions of his American Family Plan last week, and just like with his American Jobs Plan, the details are scant and the price tag is high.Even given the limited details, the plans ought to give everyone pause — and by “everyone” I don’t just mean conservatives who oppose massive welfare state expansions, but also those who agree with the objective of an increase in the social insurance system in America. There are some serious...

Free community college is a big hit on the campaign trail as candidates battle over student debt plans but there’s a downside — schools could be overwhelmed by a tide of new students who’d still wind up without degrees. Most of the Democratic presidential candidates back free tuition for two-year colleges but they’ve skipped over how it would really work. If too many students show up, the system will buckle, even if more cash accompanies them, and students run the risk of being shut out of packed classes, college leaders say. No one has yet figured out how to efficiently...

A sense of urgency has taken hold of higher education leaders nationwide. Reports of declining community college graduation rates and the lack of skilled workers have led policymakers and college leaders to sound the alarm and vow to do whatever it takes to lower the high rate of “dropouts” and equip students to meet the labor demands of an evolving economy. For example, in a policy brief about non-completing students written for myFutureNC (an organization focused on educational attainment), Anita Brown-Graham and Catherine Moga Bryant describe the “high numbers of non-completers in North Carolina” and argue that “while many enroll,...

PITTSBURGH -- When the Pittsburgh Pirates opened their season two weeks ago at PNC Park, Nathan Sibley, a York County, Pennsylvania, kid who struggled in high school and subsequently stood little chance to attend a four-year college had earned the job for the major league club that nearly every fan in the ballpark pays attention to. "I am the captioner for the Pirates for the JumboTron," Sibley said. He earned the job after he interned for the Pirates last summer through a program at the community college he attends. It's a dream come true for a student who did not...

A Latin proverb informs us: Discimus docendo (We learn by teaching). What have I learned these past five semesters while teaching at a local community college? That the teachers’ unions have gotten away with academic murder. In the interests of full disclosure, I should note at the outset that from the age of four, I have sat on one side or the other of a desk in a Catholic school (sometimes on both sides at the same time). I have often lamented the lowering of academic standards in our Catholic schools, comparing present benchmarks to those I faced (which had...

According to a press release issued Monday, “Bunker Hill Community College" has eliminated its unconstitutional restrictions on free speech that prevented Navy veteran Jeff Lyons from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution...... Additionally, the Massachusetts Community College System, which includes Bunker Hill, has agreed to review similar problematic policies at 6 of its other campuses.” This was the modern battle at Bunker Hill where a Navy veteran was told he needed permission to hand out copies of the very document he risked his life for,” said YAL President Cliff Maloney. “Free Speech does not require a permit and we...

SAN DIEGO—Anthony Rodriguez recalled sitting in a remedial math class at Grossmont College, bored out of his mind. The professor was teaching basic math skills that the 18-year-old had already learned in high school. Rodriguez was forced into remedial math by the community college’s placement test, which assesses a student’s ability to succeed in for-credit, higher-education classes. Rodriguez’s placement-test scores dictated at least a year of these low-level math courses. They cost the same as regular classes but don’t count toward a bachelor’s degree. Each week, Rodriguez watched as fewer and fewer classmates showed up. Eventually, he dropped out too....

Weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 19, which waives fees for first-time freshmen at California community colleges, officials in the Los Rios Community College District are wondering where the money will come from to pay for the tuition breaks. AB 19 would expand upon the current fee waiver for low-income students, recently renamed the California Promise Grant. The new grant would waive the first year of fees for all first-time, full-time students attending a California community college, regardless of need. Los Rios supported the bill, but spokesman Gabe Ross recently expressed concern that money could wind up being diverted...

UPDATE: While Murphy initially said his tuition-free plan would cost as much as $400 million, a Murphy spokesman later clarified that the most it would cost would be $200 million. TRENTON -- Democratic nominee for governor Phil Murphy on Monday formally announced a plan to offer tuition-free community college to all New Jerseyans. "We simply do not have the workforce that we need," said Murphy, standing on the sidewalk of the Trenton Junior College & School of Industrial Arts and flanked by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. "We can and we must open the doors of opportunity, wide, for all...

Algebra is one of the biggest hurdles to getting a high school or college degree — particularly for students of color and first-generation undergrads. It is also the single most failed course in community colleges across the country. So if you're not a STEM major (science, technology, engineering, math), why even study algebra?

U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand today announced $499,500 in federal funds for Mohawk Valley Community College’s thINCubator. This funding was allocated through the federal Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) i6 Challenge program and will allow Mohawk Valley to provide funding for start-up companies as well as connect them with the resources needed to succeed and create jobs. Specifically, this funding is aimed at helping entrepreneurs in Upstate NY’s burgeoning nanotechnology, cybersecurity and Unmanned Aerial Systems sectors. Schumer and Gillibrand said this funding is a critical component of making this project a reality.

Under state rules, the first two years of promise zones must be funded through philanthropy. Beginning in 2018, the Detroit Promise will be funded by increases in property tax revenue based on the 6 mills of the State Education Tax; the program will capture half of any increase in property tax revenue from the SET, officials said. Detroit Public Schools interim superintendent Alycia Meriweather told students gathered at a news conference that it’s now up to them to be prepared for college, by getting good grades. “You have an opportunity today that all the rest of us who grew up...

Not sure what the situation is...